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Brainwashing: A Desirable Mental Attittude?

If anybody remembers the "Brainwashing" scare of the "old" Cold War - then the latest developments in the tale of the Iranian kidnapped hostage saga - in which they have all confessed now should be ringing some small distant bells of memory.

Signed stilted confessions, showtrial TV and just the whiff of possible coercion - sounds like the Sixties all over again.

All 15 of the British service personnel held in Iran have confessed to having illegally entered the country's waters, an Iranian state-run television channel said today.

The unsourced report was on the Arabic-language channel al-Alam and contained a mix of old and previously unseen footage of the captives.

Iranian media reports said footage of the "confessions" would not be broadcast, following unspecified "positive changes" in Britain's negotiating stance.

Since last week, al-Alam has broadcast footage of four of the 15 captives "confessing".

Were these hostages tortured in some horrible 60's mindwarp "Ipcress File" nightmare to make them "confess"?

No - it would seem thats its all down to Tricks of the Intelligence Trade:

A likely scenario, I think, is that the Iranian interrogators have been feeding disinformation to the British sailors and have managed to make them believe not only that they were in Iranian waters when caught but that the British government has also admitted this and apologised for it, and that now they have realised their mistake, a genuine apology would best serve their own and their country's interest.

The Iranian intelligence service has used this technique before on some Iranian dissidents and the results were satisfactory. In one case they had even produced a bogus version of a well-known newspaper to persuade them.

In this way, without even touching the detainees or doing anything that could legally be considered as torture, either physical or psychological, they may have managed to get the words they want from the detainees.

That's why the interrogators don't allow the detainees to have any contact with the outside world, so that the detainees can only be fed with disinformation that could naturally and logically lead them into willingly doing or saying exactly what the interrogators want.

Not that I am slightly cynical or anything - but I suspect the hidden hand of the government in communicating exactly what kind of appeasement noises the hostages have to make to dampen down media interest - while behind the scenes some licenses for some exports of weapons get quietly approved ...

Not that I would ever suggest that Britain waives the rules when it comes to "doing business" with people to ensure "peace in our time" ...


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